Heart Valve Voice Spring Conference Season

We are starting off spring by getting back into conference mode and have already signed on to a few conferences over the next few weeks.

The first conference we are due to attend will be the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) Annual Meeting on the 18-20 March in Glasgow. The SCTS Annual Meeting brings together surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, surgical care practitioners, physiotherapists, child governance leads, database managers and allied health professionals to discuss and learn about all aspects of cardiothroacic surgery. Heart Valve Voice will not only be presenting at the conference but we have also put together a team of clinicians and volunteers to represent Heart Valve Voice at the football tournament on the 17th.

“The SCTS Annual Meeting is a great way for us to connect with clinicians from all over Europe,” said Wil Woan, Heart Valve Voice CEO. “The more clinicians we get behind us the more information and guidance we can provide to patients. We also get to represent our patients at conferences like these and spread their messages to a wider audience of professionals.”

“It is so important for charities like Heart Valve Voice to attend these meetings and conferences because because it provides clinicians with a patient perspective and helps us to see how the public interpret diseases like valve disease” said Govind Chetty, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

Our second conference of the year will see us at the Pulse Live Conference in London from the 27-28 March.

The Pulse Live Conference connects primary care professionals including all practising, GMC-registered GPs and trainees. Diagnosing valve disease begins with primary care as many cases of the disease are detected through a stethoscope exam after a visit to the GP. This conference will give us the opportunity to meet with primary care professionals and spread the messages that we have provided in our Primary Care Guidelines. We are looking forward to sharing our work with those in attendance during our presentation and hope to make some valuable connections in the world of primary care.

“As GPs are often the first point of contact for patients with valve disease it is great to know that organisations like Heart Valve Voice are encouraging the public to have their hearts checked,” said Chris Arden, GP/GPSI Cardiology. “We need more patients to understand what the red flag symptoms of valve disease are so they are getting checked by their GP sooner rather than later and Heart Valve Voice is doing some great work to ensure that many more people are aware of heart valve disease.”

Heart Valve Voice are scheduled to attend a number of conferences throughout the coming year and we will keep you updated on each one.

Patient Updates - What's new at Heart Valve Voice

It’s been an interesting year for valve disease patient Peter Robinson. After being diagnosed with valve disease, being told he had very little chance of surviving then meeting Mr Michael Sabetai of Guy’s and St Thomas’ and being given a life changing new innovative valve, it’s safe to say Peter will never forget 2017.

Patient Updates - What's new at Heart Valve Voice

Valve patient Norman Thorpe has been hard at work since his valve surgery in March. Not only has he been volunteering in his local mediaeval Parish church in the village of Whalley he has also penned a book containing a series of essays. The essays, originally written for the Parish Magazine, are all about the colourful history that surrounds the church, village and valley. Norman is very happy to have completed his book which is something he couldn’t have done without his life changing treatment.